


Comfort

by Carisa_Ironfell



Series: Unconnected Prompt Works [9]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Dragon slayers are family, Friendship, Gajeel giving good advice, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I Don't Even Know, I have no idea where this came from, There are no words, They look out for each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:15:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27730627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carisa_Ironfell/pseuds/Carisa_Ironfell
Summary: Gajeel follows his instincts and finds Freed moping in the ocean. They have a conversation and Freed pulls through his loss.'They sat together in silence for a long time, the level of the water steadily rising around them. The more time passed, the less convinced Gajeel was that Freed even knew he was there. By the time the water was starting to get to a truly threatening level, he was confident that the rune mage had completely lost awareness of his surroundings, as deep in thought as he was.'
Relationships: Freed Justine & Gajeel Redfox, Freed Justine/Gajeel Redfox
Series: Unconnected Prompt Works [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2028331
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	Comfort

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GayChickenNugget124](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GayChickenNugget124/gifts).



> Part 9 of 12 in my prompted series!! Now, this one is a little confusing even for me, because it doesn't really come across as especially shippy to me. So I decided to label it as more platonic, because it be like that sometimes. Can be viewed either way though!! (Don't mind me as I just sit in my "unlikely friendships" headcanon hole ^-^)
> 
> Thank you for reading!! I hope you enjoy it!

Gajeel was an idiot. He was an idiot who couldn't leave well enough alone. But it was those damn instincts, the ones that wouldn't leave him alone even when he tried to ignore them, so he'd decided that maybe it was better to actually listen to them sometimes. In this particular case, he was following a weird scent, and he was glad he'd done what his heart told him to for once when he saw what he was following.

The green-haired rune mage of the Thunder Legion, Freed Justine, was sitting on the beach. It was after dark and the tide was starting to come up, so there was a good chance that he would get hypothermia or drown if he didn't move from where he was sitting. Gajeel's chest tensed up, the sight of the young man curled up with his knees to his chest and his arms around his legs causing the dragonslayer an inexplicable amount of pain. Shaking his head and questioning his life, Gajeel sat down next to the man, ignoring the sting of cold ocean water, and waited. That was all he could do for now; just give Freed some time and wait for him to talk.

They sat together in silence for a long time, the level of the water steadily rising around them. The more time passed, the less convinced Gajeel was that Freed even knew he was there. By the time the water was starting to get to a truly threatening level, he was confident that the rune mage had completely lost awareness of his surroundings, as deep in thought as he was. So that left only one thing to do.

Standing up, Gajeel wrapped his arms around the other wizard and pulled up, lifting Freed clean off his feet and out of the water before trudging away from the rising ocean. Freed snapped out of whatever trance he'd been in, struggling and protesting and demanding to know what was going on, but Gajeel ignored him and just kept walking back toward the guildhall. Nearly everyone except the most dedicated members and the waitstaff would be gone by now, so they could converse in peace for a while.

To Gajeel's surprise, the nice, purple-haired waitress - Molly, he was pretty sure her name was - that always brought him things was waiting just inside the door, stopping them before he walked very far and giving them towels. Gajeel thanked her awkwardly and took the towels and Freed, ducking away from prying eyes and into his room. It was a storage room or something just off of the library that they'd apparently decided they didn't need for storage after all, so the master had given it to him as his room, since he hadn't had enough money at the time to rent a place for himself.

Closing the door behind him, Gajeel finally set Freed down and gave him most of the towels. Freed tried to glare at him while he got to work drying himself off, but it was a poor attempt; it was obvious that he was in too much pain to summon up a proper scowl. Gajeel shook his head and started digging through the dresser that Juvia had bought for him and insisted that he use. He thought it was stupid and a waste of space, but he had to admit that it was kind of useful.

"Gajeel, what do you want?" Freed asked, his voice quivering subtly as he spoke; most people wouldn't have heard it at all, but Gajeel wasn't most people.

The dragonslayer sighed and pulled his tunic up and over his head, tossing it into the corner before replacing it with another that was clean and dry. He'd already kicked his boots off in the corner, so once his tunic was covering him, he changed his pants too. He didn't really care what parts of him anyone saw, since he hadn't exactly grown up with the luxury of privacy, but he understood that most 'civilized' people had problems with that kind of thing. Not that he cared much, but Freed was upset enough as was and didn't need Gajeel's stupid insensitivity making things worse. _Stars- Why am I doing this?_ Gajeel wondered silently, tugging his long hair out of the collar of his tunic once he was finished changing.

"I found you sitting in the ocean in the middle of the night. I've got a problem with it. Whatever's messing with your head so badly, you need to talk about it. I'm not anyone to you, so it doesn't matter what you tell me, right? So get talking," Gajeel replied gruffly, cursing himself internally at his way of speaking and his tone. Stars, this was stupid- He should never, _ever_ be the person put in charge of someone else's fragile emotional state.

Freed drew in a shuddering breath and Gajeel thought for a moment that the man would either bolt out the door or attack him; misery and rage sounded almost the same when listened to with a dragon's senses. But then there was a soft thump from behind him, and when he turned around he saw Freed on his knees on the floor, burying his face in his hands as his shoulders shook with barely-repressed sobs.

The dragonslayer panicked for a few seconds, then shook himself out of uncertainty and knelt beside the young man, wrapping his arms around his shoulders and pulling him close. It was a bit of a strain and a bit uncomfortable, but he'd done so many worse things, and this was important, so it didn't matter. What mattered was making sure his guildmate would be alright, or at least not try to deal with things on his own.

 _"...Laxus,"_ Freed finally whispered after a long time spent in silence. That single word seemed to be what finally broke the young captain, his expression contorting as he gave one last attempt to maintain composure. When it failed, he collapsed against Gajeel and started wailing into his shoulder, the sound too-loud in the dragonslayer's ears and barely muffled despite his attempts.

Gajeel didn't know what to do, had no clue how to comfort Freed, so he just sat there and did the best he could. He'd comforted Juvia before, but he really wasn't sure that Juvia and Freed saw comfort the same way. He actually knew very little about Freed, for that matter; maybe he should try and fix that.

Gradually, Freed seemed to calm down a bit. At least, he seemed too tired now to cry anymore, so he simply leaned against Gajeel and caught his breath for a while. When Freed has gotten a grip, he leaned away and sat down a foot or two away from Gajeel, untying and running shaky fingers through his damp hair. The silky green mass was incredibly long, and had a lot of volume; or whatever, it wasn't like Gajeel knew that stuff. It was just more hair than he'd ever seen on one person before, that he could remember.

"Laxus was more than just my leader. He was my friend, and he saved my life. All of ours, really. That's why we're so loyal to him - because awful things could have happened to us if he hadn't brought us to Fairytail. We were outcasts, not accepted by anyone, and he was the one who gave us a place to belong. He didn't even ask for anything in return, in the beginning; he only wanted us to stick together and take care of each other," Freed's voice was quiet as he spoke, apparently explaining what was on his mind just like Gajeel had asked. He paused for a long while, but Gajeel knew more was coming, so he didn't interrupt the flow. "This is my fault... If I had just said something, before things got this bad- I could have kept him from becoming so proud, from wanting to hurt everyone. I could have stopped this from happening..."

Gajeel knew what that train of thought was like, and he knew exactly how useless it was. So instead of letting Freed continue down it any further, he reached forward and rested a hand on the man's shoulder, causing him to jump and go silent. "Stop that. It won't help, and it won't change anything. Believe me, I know what it's like to think 'What if?' but _what if_ doesn't make it better. It just hurts you worse.

"I get that you lost your friend, and I know that it hurts, even if I don't know how much or in what way. But he made his choices, and there's nothing you could have done to control that - he's a dragonslayer, we aren't meant to be controlled.

"So look at it this way instead: he was your friend and he wouldn't want you blaming yourself for this. He had you stay here because he didn't want you to feel like an outcast again. That sounds like a step in the right direction to me, so just give it time. I think that he's meant to be a member of this guild, so when it's the right time, he'll be back." Finally falling silent, Gajeel felt his cheeks burn. That was a lot-

The look on Freed's face, part shock, part relief, and part awe, was more than enough to justify his little rant and make it worth the effort and embarrassment of putting himself out there. The rune mage looked like Gajeel had just put his entire world back together, which was both flattering and a little scary; no one had ever looked at him that way before.

"Thank you, Gajeel," the green-haired man said softly, a tiny smile beginning to grow on his face. Gajeel smiled awkwardly and questioned his life some more.

"Y-yeah, no problem- Just don't tell anyone, 'kay?" he grumbled, looking away and fiddling with the edge of his tunic. Freed let out a small laugh, a tiny burst of amusement and released stress. Gajeel glanced back up for a moment, just to see what Freed's expression was like, and saw the smile turn contemplative and a little sad. It was understandable, of course, but not the desired effect, so he had to scramble quickly for something to do. One of Juvia's questionable tactics came to mind, so he darted forward and kissed the man. It wasn't very long contact, but it should be enough to distract him; it always worked when Juvia did it to him to snap him out of too-deep thoughts.

Freed stared back at him in stunned silence, blue-green eyes wide in disbelief, then slowly had to fight a smile. Gajeel leaned away, waiting for something bad to happen to him, and was shocked when Freed failed to hold in whatever he was trying to. His expression burst into an incredulous grin and his laugh was crystal-clear as it rang through the room, his long hair shifting over his shoulder as he tossed his head back in amusement.

"You- are very unpredictable-" the rune mage gasped out between fits of laughter, tipping forward to fold over himself, his arms around his ribs. "Thank you for that, Gajeel," he continued, glancing up to offer a genuine smile. "I think I should go home now and get changed, but I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight!"

Was Gajeel surprised that his actions hadn't had any negative repercussions? **Yes.** Was he going to complain about it? **Nope.** So he just waved at the other man as he stood up and shook his hair out, feeling dazed, and let out a quiet huff. "'Night, Freed," he replied, watching as Freed paused in the doorway to offer another smile before disappearing from sight.

Yep, that had been weird. Time for bed, and nothing could stop him. It was cold and it was time for Gajeel to start hibernating for the first time since he was a kid, still living with Metallicana.


End file.
